Failing Entrepreneurs: 6 Causes of their Stumbles

Entrepreneurs can stumble for a variety of reasons, and when considering the failure rate of the average startup, it’s clear that they do a lot of stumbling.

No entrepreneur can fully avoid the struggles that come with the entrepreneurial culture. Failure is an assumed risk and a work hazard — it’s inevitable. What are some of the main reasons an entrepreneur can fail and how can they be avoided? A recent Inc article poses these questions to a variety of industry experts with firsthand experience. Here are some of their insights:

Entrepreneurs tend to fail because they don’t understand their customers, says Mark Peter Davis, venture partner with New York-based High Peaks Venture Partners. Entrepreneurs are always encouraged to think like their customers. There’s just one problem with that: they think like entrepreneurs, not customers.

When there isn’t enough money to keep a startup fueled, the business is likely to fizzle out with rapidity, says John Greathouse, partner at California-based Rincon Venture Partners. This obvious problem is well-recognized as entrepreneurs’ kryptonite.